Colombia's 99 Disarmed Ex-Guerrillas Face Legal Limbo as De la Espriella Orders Hardline Shift
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 29
Colombia's 99 Disarmed Ex-Guerrillas Face Legal Limbo as De la Espriella Orders Hardline Shift
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 29
Summary
Ninety-nine former guerrillas who surrendered in June are confined to a government transition zone in southern Colombia, unsure whether President Abelardo de la Espriella will protect them or shut the program down.
Their status rests on a Petro-era decree that suspends arrest warrants and runs until Dec. 25, but the new president—who vowed to end "total peace" and has already resumed airstrikes—can revoke it earlier.
The group has received neither the promised roughly £425 monthly support nor a clear path to civilian life, because Congress never created a legal framework for demobilizing fighters accused of crimes such as kidnapping or drug trafficking.
That uncertainty has widened since De la Espriella folded the peace office into a National Security Commission, a move expected to cut more than 200 jobs, and ordered the extradition of CNEB negotiator Geovany Andrés Rojas.
The 99 are the only fighters to disarm under Petro's failed bid to demobilize armed groups; most of their roughly 1,000 Commandos of the Frontier comrades remain armed, and at least one ex-combatant says he would take up weapons again if the state breaks its side of the deal.